New sports club offers 'basketball, badminton and banter'
Disabled people living near High Wycombe have been offered the chance to join a new sports club for ‘badminton, basketball and banter’.
Pauline Parker, 46 set up the Wheelin’ Wheelers club to provide regular opportunities for wheelchair users to enjoy a range of sport activities with friends and family.
The club was awarded funding of £2,000 from Buckinghamshire County Council to buy equipment and to continue hiring space every Sunday at Wycombe Sports Centre. And although the group has gone from strength to strength since being set up in a pilot scheme last September, Pauline believes far more local people could benefit from it. She said:
“It’s such fun to go there for two hours. You play sport and you forget about the bad week you have had and all the pain you have been in.”
She stresses that taking part in sport and physical activity is important for everyone and ability is irrelevant (although preferably members do need to be able to self-propel in their chairs). The club is not aimed at people who want to compete at the Paralympics. Talking about the club, Pauline said:
“This is more for people who don’t want sport take over their life, but just want to participate once a week and have a bit of fun.”
She added:
“So many more people could be gaining from this. Two of the members have said it has changed their lives having somewhere to go each week to play sport. It’s something for us to look forward to. Basketball, badminton and banter is the motto.”
Carers, friends and family are encouraged to take part and there's a spare wheelchair that they can use to join in. The club is currently expanding the range of sports they play. They've just started curling and are hoping to give archery a go in the future.
Pauline, who worked in the finance department of the Department for Work and Pensions, became paralysed from the waist down after suffering a spinal cord injury in 2009. She later spent several weeks in rehabilitation at Stoke Mandeville Hospital’s National Spinal Injuries Centre. On returning home, she soon saw the need for a local sports club in High Wycombe where the emphasis is on having fun and socialising while being active.
The pilot scheme was initially funded through support from the Bowerdean Residents Action Group and a grant from Wycombe District Council’s ward member for Bowerdean, Cllr Julia Wassell.
It's Chairman, Cllr Valerie Letheren, said:
“I’m delighted we were able to help Wheelin’ Wheelers in this way because there is a clear need for such a club to be run in the Wycombe and south Bucks area. I just hope that other wheelchair users will contact Pauline and grab this free opportunity to take part in sport and have fun at the same time."
